Among the dirty little secrets of the independent film world, the dirtiest may be this – if the movie is available to the general public on home video, much less theatrically, it probably is not completely independent. Somewhere, usually way back in development before pre-production even starts, the entity holding the purse strings has forceful opinions about the filmmaker’s creative vision. Usually, there are a whole bunch of entities, all with opinions that must be addressed before anything can be shot, enforcing their homogenizing views right through the editing and distribution stages.

title:
Bridget Jones’s Diary (Collector's Edition)
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studio:
Miramax Home Entertainment
MPAA rating:
R
starring:
Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant
film release year:
2001
DVD release year:
2004
film rating:
Four Stars
sound/picture:
Four Stars
reviewed by:
Dan MacIntosh
Don’t let Renee Zellweger’s Texas upbringing deter you, because she is
perfectly cast in “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” a silly film about the
dating ups and downs of a single British woman. After a while, in fact,
it’s nearly impossible to think about the character Bridget Jones, and
all her trials and troubles, without also picturing this particular
actress’s face front and center in the mind’s eye. And since Zellweger
is thankfully not just another pretty Hollywood face, she is able to
naturally bring out all the contradictory insecurities of the single
life through her performance. Much of the time, “Bridget Jones’s Diary”
plays out just like an actual woman’s diary, with its inherent soap
opera-like wild mood swings from day to day. But no matter ...

title:
Jersey Girl
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studio:
Miramax Home Entertainment
MPAA rating:
PG-13
starring:
Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, Raquel Castro, George Carlin, Stephen Root, Mike Starr, Jason Biggs, Jennifer Lopez
director:
Kevin Smith
film release year:
2004
DVD release year:
2004
film rating:
One Star
sound/picture rating:
Four Stars
reviewed by:
Bill Warren
Kevin Smith is a well-known smartass from New Jersey; some of his
movies, including “Clerks,” “Chasing Amy” and “Dogma” are clever,
intelligent and well-made. Others are pretty bad, including “Mallrats,”
“Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” and now “Jersey Girl.” All of them are
suffused with Smith’s evident belief that he’s a sharp, witty observer
of the world around him; actually, most of the time he seems to be
examining his own navel with glad cries of discovery. But that in
itself is not necessarily a failing; Woody Allen is equally
self-obsessed, and he’s often very good.

title:
Laws Of Attraction
studio:
New Line Home Entertainment
MPAA rating:
PG-13
starring:
Pierce Brosnan, Julianne Moore, Parker Posey, Michael Sheen, Nora Dunn, Frances Fisher
Theatrical release year:
2004
DVD release year:
2004
film rating:
Three Stars
sound/picture rating:
Three-and-a-Half Stars
reviewed by:
Abbie Bernstein
“Laws of Attraction” is a romantic comedy that feels like it could have
been made at almost any time in the last 35 years (once unmarried
couples were allowed to have sex without one of the pair getting hit by
a bus shortly thereafter). It’s agreeable in its ultra-fluffy way,
though it’s yet another example of the genre in which a man – slightly
flawed but basically reasonable – puts up with behavior from a gorgeous
woman that charms him more than it will most viewers.

title:
Home Fries
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studio:
Warner Home Video
MPAA rating:
PG-13
starring:
Drew Barrymore, Catherine O’Hara, Luke Wilson, Jake Busey
release year:
1998
film rating:
Three Stars
reviewed by:
Abbie Bernstein
If you are tired of predictable, formulaic romantic comedies but are
still in the mood for some variation of the boy-meets-girl theme with
whimsical thriller underpinnings, give ‘Home Fries’ a try. Vince
Gilligan’s droll script is so idiosyncratic and loopy as to border on
the unclassifiable.
One of the good things about ‘Home Fries’ overall is that it’s tough to
describe without blowing some of the plot surprises right off the bat.
Suffice to say that Sally Jackson (Drew Barrymore), a resident of a
small Texas town, is all set for life as a young, unwed mother. Sally
simply cannot trust the daddy of her soon-to-be-born baby to be a
responsible parent, even before the father-to-be -- an older, married
man -- dies of a heart ...